NEWS

We get in touch online, because she tag us in post. We talked about her wonderful work on Groot model, so you can now read, how she get this nice result.

Is printing your hobby or is it a full time job? Because we checked your Instagram and it looks pretty good there.3D printing is a hobby at the moment although it takes up most of my free time..... but I totally love it. I bought my first printer in May 2016 and it just went from there. I've learned tons in the last year and there is such a great 3Dprinting community out there. I can honestly say I've met some great people on forums and especially on instagram. If I've had a problem I need help with, I've never been stuck for long, theres always someone there ready to jump in and help. And people are out there posting some great content, its really inspiring. So many great ideas and designs being brought to life, meaning that its one of the most exciting communities out there.So where to go for those people? Give us please any tips for groups, webs etc A lot of the help I’ve received is from others on instagram. If I post a pic about a particular problem, people are really quick to jump in and offer advice - it’s great. @print_itsolid really helped me out when I was struggling to get through my first prints on the Wanhao, helped me dial it in until i got the quality I was looking for.I also joined the facebook group ‘Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus’ which has also been really helpful. Not only with troubleshooting but also being able to see what upgrades people are doing to their machines and which are worthwhile. Thingiverse also has a lot of useful groups focused on specific printers or areas. These can be really great too. I used youtube videos to help me upgrade the hotend on my printer. At the end of it you come away feeling like you’ve learnt alot more and it builds confidence. You can then go on and share knowledge with others needing advice.

There was a big “Groot boom” in the beginning of this year. This one is one of the best and complex we have seen. Have you seen the film/films?Thank you. I'd finally gotten around to watching the first film a few weeks back. No idea why I hadn’t watched it sooner as I loved it! Sadly by this point I missed the chance to catch the second film at the cinema. So now I can’t wait to watch it when it’s released!

Which printer did you used for Timberfill, which is the print made of? In which settings? I printed the Baby Groot (from thingiverse - thing number 2014307) on my Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus, using Fillamentum Timberfill in the light wood colour. The model prints in two parts - the head and the body. I actually scaled both parts down to 90% - mainly due to the time it was going to take to print them. I used 20% infill and 0.20mm layer height. The first print of the body failed as I;d forgotten to amend my retraction settings. But this kinda worked out well as it meant I had a piece to test painting on later. After I amended my retraction settings - reduced retraction distance and speed a little, it had no further issues and came out great. I printed the first 2 layers at 190 degrees and the rest at 185 degrees.

Which tools are you using to post process?The only sanding I did to the model was around the neck where it had to slot into the body. I left the rest of the model as it was because it came out so well. I didn’t want to lose any of the wood feel, or any of the detail on the design. Other than that, I had a little bit of string to clear up and for this I used a sharp hobby knife. This helps keep the print clean and defined. But honestly I didn’t have a lot to do before I painted it.

We do see also some post process with coloring and moss addition. Which type of color did you used? Any sanding? How did you make the moss?To finish the model I wanted to fully paint it. I used a combination of airbrushing and hand painting. I've always had success using Tamiya Acrylic model paints, so I went with those again for this. I started with black and hand painted all the crevices and lines with this colour. I then airbrushed the entire model in brown. This gave it some depth in the lines where the black made it look darker. Once it was dry I mixed up a lighter brown and dry brushed the over the surface. This gave the wood effect I was looking for, and because I used wood timberfill it looked and felt realistic. Once it was dry I applied an olive green to parts of the model to give it a living feel. I then added in a few more shades of green to try and add more depth and then sprayed the entire model with a clear matt varnish coat to protect the paint. Finally I used some coarse light turf I picked up from a craft shop to add the moss effect. I used a hobby tool to apply some poly cement and then carefully add in tiny bits of the moss and that was it finished. It was a really fun project, and this little guy is just too cute :).

Thank you Rachael to share your skills with us!You are very welcome. Thanks for having me!